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Project properties |
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| Title | MSc thesis/internship in New Zealand: Can restoration of native agricultural landscape features help New Zealand's farmers and pollinators |
| Group | Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 36 |
| Supervisor(s) | Thijs Fijen (WUR), Brad Howlett (Plant & Food Research, Lincoln, New Zealand) |
| Examiner(s) | Thijs Fijen |
| Contact info | thijs.fijen@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2022/09/01 |
| End date | 2024/07/01 |
| Description | Despite agricultural intensification, New Zealand crops are often visited by wild bee and non-bee pollinating species proven to provide pollination services. However, their abundances and distributions currently make them unreliable pollinators. The establishment of native plantings on farms that provide food and shelter to these pollinators may be one technique to boost the presence of at least some species. We would like to improve our understanding on whether:
1) native plantings support wild pollinator diversity on New Zealand farms and if so, are there particular plant species that better support pollinator diversity 2) native habitat age influences pollinator diversity and species composition 3) establishing native habitat on farms leads to increased wild pollinator visitation to crop plants and the translation into improved yields. Research into one or more of these aims will require extensive field work and frequent travel to local farms in the Canterbury region of the South Island. Researchers would need to be willing to work on farms for periods of several hours and be trained to identify common pollinators, predators of pests and pest insects. Researchers would be based at Plant & Food Research, Lincoln near Christchurch. This project could be an internship or a thesis. |
| Used skills | Insect identification, field monitoring, experimental setup, statistical analyses |
| Requirements | Full driving licence, independent |